S&P Global Market Intelligence provides a wrap-up of Asia-Pacific media and communications deal announcements, completions and updates from Oct. 1. to Oct. 14.
TOP NEWS
* Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to acquire a majority stake in New York-based co-working giant WeWork Cos., The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 9, citing unnamed sources. SoftBank's venture arm, SoftBank Vision Fund, which committed US$4.4 billion to WeWork in 2017, already owns close to 20% of the commercial office space startup.
* Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. is investing US$180 million to buy an undisclosed minority stake in Brazilian financial technology company Nubank, Reuters reported, citing statements from both companies. Of the amount, US$90 million will be paid via capital increase, while the other half will be used to buy partial stakes from the Brazilian startup's shareholders.
TECHNOLOGY
* U.S.-based private equity firm KKR & Co. made an unsolicited, nonbinding bid to acquire MYOB Group Ltd. for A$3.70 per share in cash after increasing its stake in the Australia-based accounting software company to 19.9%.
* Indonesian e-commerce platform KinerjaPay Corp. agreed to acquire digital payment company PT. Mitra Distribusi Utama, Deal Street Asia reported Oct. 5. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
* Investors led by Tencent Holdings and KKR & Co. agreed to acquire a substantial minority stake in Philippine digital technology company Voyager Innovations Inc. for as much as US$175 million, according to an Oct. 4 news release.
MEDIA
* Dentsu Inc. agreed to acquire a 100% stake in U.K.-based business-to-business market research company B2B International Ltd. through its U.K. unit Dentsu Aegis UK Ltd., according to an Oct. 11 release. The terms of the deal were not provided.
* Reliance Industries Ltd. is in discussions to acquire Hathway Cable & Datacom Ltd., a major cable operator in India, to accelerate the commercial launch of its GigaFiber home broadband service, The Economic Times (India) reported Oct. 3, citing people with knowledge of the talks.
* Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd. agreed on Oct. 2, to acquire a 69% stake in Branded Ltd., an entertainment marketing company based in Hong Kong.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
* Australian telecom software and services provider MNF Group Ltd. entered into an agreement to acquire the wholesale and enablement business from Inabox Group Ltd. for a price between A$30.5 million and A$33.5 million in cash, according to an Oct. 8 release.
* South Korean telco SK Telecom Co. Ltd. is considering an acquisition of SK Group's security unit SK Infosec Co. Ltd., Asia Economy reported Oct. 4.
* Tata Communications Ltd. subsidiary Tata Communications (Netherlands) B.V. acquired Teleena Holding B.V., a Netherlands-based internet of things connectivity specialist and mobile virtual network enabler, according to an Oct. 3 filing.
* Bharti Airtel Ltd. is acquiring the core team of Bangalore-based AI startup AuthMe Id Services Pvt. Ltd., according to an Oct. 3 release. As part of the transaction, Airtel also acquired the intellectual property rights for AuthMe's flagship solutions Callup AI and Fintech OCR.
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